FBI

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In former FBI director James Comey’s interview with ABC News, he attempted to position himself as an upholder of the rule of law, of the constitution, and even of the truth. Human beings are very good at forgetting their own misdeeds and building narratives that justify […]

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Here is a caution against the Nunes memo that the Republican Party intends to release: it is the sort of thing that got us into the disastrous Iraq War. Cherry-picking raw intelligence is one of the ways the hawks around Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld bamboozled Washington […]

By David Ruiz | (Electronic Frontier Foundation) | – – The debate over how to reauthorize certain NSA surveillance authorities has seen a whirlwind of activity, culminating in the major news that the House Rules Committee postponed a vote today to potentially expand NSA spying powers. As we wrote yesterday: “According to reports published Tuesday […]

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump got three pieces of bad news on Friday, along with the one good piece of news that he managed to lower taxes on himself and his billionaire cronies as the expense of health care for working people. The first piece of bad news is that […]

TeleSur | – – Nearly 3,000 documents previously kept secret are now in the process of being published online by the National Archive. As much as 88% of the collection has been available to the public since the late 1990s, but a small portion is still being withheld. Conspiracy theorists have been quick to seize […]

By Mike Eckel | ( RFE/RL ) | – – WASHINGTON — Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that U.S. law enforcement officials intend to search its San Francisco consulate and some diplomatic residences, and it complained the U.S. demands were posing a “direct threat” to its citizens. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement […]

By Julia Conley, staff writer. | Commondreams.org | – – A memo by the FBI and DHS said white supremacist groups pose a bigger threat to the U.S. than other extremist organizations. White supremacist groups have been responsible for more homicides than any other domestic extremist movement in the past 17 years, according to a […]

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – On the eve of former FBI director James Comey’s testimony, Trump seems to be tanking in the polls, and his firing Comey seems to be a big part of the reason why. Nate Silver’s poll of polls finds that the percentage of those who strongly support […]

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Globally, US security partners are beginning to rethink sharing sensitive intelligence with the United States. That decisio should worry all Americans, since it puts the US at greater risk of being blindsided. The Republican Party has long claimed to be the party of security, in large […]